Renteria Reaches Semis at Big Ten Championships

East Lansing, Mich. - Freshman Jason Renteria won his first two matches at 133 pounds in Session I of the Big Ten Championships, as he advanced to Saturday night's semifinals at the Breslin Center.

Eight Huskers are still alive at the tournament, including seven in the consolation bracket and Renteria in the semifinals. As a team, Nebraska is in 10th place with 16.5 team points.

Renteria, seeded fourth, began the day with a pin over Logan Griffin of Michigan State in 3:56. The pin was Renteria's second over Griffin this season, as he also defeated Griffin by fall in 1:29 in a dual meet on Feb. 4.

In the quarterfinal match, Renteria scored a takedown just before the final buzzer in the third period to defeat fifth-seeded Scott DelVecchio of Rutgers by a 3-1 decision. With the semifinal appearance, Renteria can finish no lower than sixth, and has locked up automatic qualification to the NCAA Championships in two weeks. He improves to 7-2 on the season, and will face top-seeded Stevan Micic of Michigan in Saturday night's semifinals.

At 141 pounds, fourth-seeded Chad Red Jr. won his first-round matchup with Ryan Diehl of Maryland by a 6-0 decision, but fell to No. 5 Nate Limmex of Purdue by a 6-4 decision in the quarterfinal round. Red will face Alec McKenna in the consolation second round Saturday.

Fourth-seeded Colton McCrystal found bonus points for the Huskers early on, winning a 17-5 major decision over No. 13 Jwan Britton of Michigan State, but McCrystal dropped a 7-6 decision to fifth-seeded Ke-Shawn Hayes of Ohio State in the quarterfinals. McCrystal will face No. 11 Austin Nash of Purdue in the consolation second round.

Tyler Berger, the fifth seed at 157 pounds, opened with an 8-3 decision over Shayne Oster, but fell to fourth seed Micah Jordan in the quarterfinals, 4-3. Berger faces Justin Alexander of Maryland in the consolation bracket.

In a stacked 165-pound bracket, eighth-seeded Isaiah White won a 6-1 decision over No. 9 Te'Shan Campbell of Ohio State, but fell to two-time NCAA champion and top-seeded Isaiah Martinez of Illinois by a 7-4 decision in the quarterfinals. White will face No. 10 Jacob Morrissey in the consolation second round.

No. 6 Taylor Venz, who had a first-round bye, dropped a 6-4 decision to No. 3 Domenic Abounader of Michigan in the quarterfinals. Venz will face Norman Conley of Indiana in the consolation round.

Eighth-seeded Eric Schultz defeated Nick May of Michigan State by a 3-2 decision in the first round, but dropped a 10-4 decision to top-seeded Kollin Moore of Ohio State in the quarterfinals. Schultz faces Jake Kleimola of Indiana in the consolation second round.

David Jensen dropped his first-round match, a 2-0 defeat at the hands of No. 6 Conan Jennings of Northwestern, but Jensen rebounded with a 7-4 win over Deuce Rachal of Illinois in the consolation first round. He moves on to face No. 5 Youssif Hemida of Maryland later Saturday.

Senior Mitchell Maginnis, seeded 11th at 125 pounds, was eliminated from podium contention after dropping a first round match to No. 6 Luke Welch of Purdue by a 6-2 decision and a 12-3 major decision to No. 14 Carson Kuhn of Penn State.

Beau Breske (174) was also eliminated after dropping a 4-3 decision by a riding time point in the second tiebreaker period to No. 7 Joey Gunther of Iowa. Breske led Josh Ugalde of Maryland in the third period of the consolation first round matchup, but Ugalde pinned Breske in 6:26.

Saturday's action continues with Session II (semifinals and consolation second round and quarterfinals) on Saturday at 5 p.m. (CT). Action will be streamed live on BTN Plus and FloWrestling.